Abstract

Background

Rodenticide poisoning remains a major public health problem in Asian countries. Nevertheless,
very few data are available in world literature regarding the outcomes of these patients.
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical outcomes of rodenticide
poisonings in our hospital and to compare these data with published reports from other
international poison centers.

Findings

We retrospectively examined the records of 20 patients with rodenticide poisoning
(8 brodifacoum, 12 bromadiolone) who were referred to Chang Gung Memorial Hospital
between 2000 and 2011. It was found that most of the rodenticide patients were middle-aged
adults. Both genders were equally affected and many patients had a past history of
major depressive disorder or schizophrenia. Nevertheless, patients with bromadiolone
were referred significantly sooner than patients with brodifacoum poisoning (0.1 ± 0.1
versus 5.5 ± 10.5, P < 0.001). Furthermore, it was found that patients with brodifacoum
suffered higher incidences of ecchymosis (50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006) and hematuria
(50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006) than patients with bromadiolone poisoning. Laboratory
analysis also demonstrated a poorer hemostatic profile of patients with brodifacoum
[prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), 4.3 ± 4.8 versus 1.0 ± 0.1,
P = 0.032; PT prolongation, 50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006; activated partial thromboplastin
time (aPTT) prolongation, 50.0% versus 0%, P = 0.006] than patients with bromadiolone
poisoning. At the end of analysis, no patient died of the poisoning.

Conclusion

The favorable outcome (zero mortality rate) is comparable to the published reports
from other international poison centers. Further studies are warranted.